A Lengthy Review of a Fantastic Cruise on the Getaway [10/03 - 10/10)

[BeachBecky]

Dude you rock! I was wondering which Hampton had the shuttle to the port. Thank you from a lazy yinzer!

 

Mandy412 - I have stayed at the Hampton Blue Lagoon two times and each were very good. Good restaurants in the plaza across the street. I will most likely stay there again for our September 18th Getaway.

[Cruise-mom]

Enjoying your review and looking forward to more, thanks for sharing.

[PaulInPGH]

We were on the same cruise and our experience with the waterfront is quite the opposite. Although we did not go there after the drill as we thought it might get crowded. But when we did go, seats were always plentiful and we enjoyed hanging out at the sugarcane bar.

 

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

Interesting. I think we tried going out there three or four times and only found seats once, and that was in the late afternoon when you'd be looking directly in to the sun while you sit. We may have just picked really busy times, but I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[PaulInPGH]

Great review so far! I'm on the Getaway in February and trying to learn all I can.

 

Thank you. More will be coming soon.

 

Cheers.

[PaulInPGH]

Now that we were full of delicious meats and cheese bread, we attempted to plan out our evening. We ended up deciding to check out the welcome show in the theater at 7:45 and then head down to Headliners to enjoy the dueling pianos of Howl at the Moon.

 

The welcome show was nothing special, just your typical overview of what the ship has to offer. There was a short performance by the cast of Legally Blond, which was just enough to help me realize I had no interest in seeing the full show. Not that the performance was bad—quite the contrary—I just thought the movie was kind of stupid and I felt no real urge to revisit it through song.

 

The Cruise Director was J.C. Sanchez. I didn’t have any strong opinions about him one way or the other; accept for a constant fascination of his accent. He is from the Philippines, but he often sounded part Spanish, but also part Scottish or English. Anyway, he didn’t really add to, or detract from, our enjoyment of our cruise.

[PaulInPGH]

We ended up leaving the welcome show a bit early to be sure we could snag a seat at Howl at the Moon. We grabbed a table at the back of Headliners and settled in to what would be a very fun night of drinking, singing, and laughing. The highlight of the evening for us is when the piano players played our request to do anything by our favorite band, Rush. That was certainly $5 well spent.

 

Having been on the go for most of the day, we decided to make it an earlier night and we headed up to our cabin around 11:30. It was a great first day aboard Getaway and we knew even more fun was ahead.

 

Up next, day 2: Wherein I completely screw up our planned pub crawl.

[Poop_Deck]

After we explored our cabin we decided to head back out and try another bar. We went back down to deck 8 and stopped at the Sunset bar. This bar was nice and typically less crowded than the Mojito Bar, but we didn’t enjoy their drink selection quite as much.

 

Having now consumed several drinks without the benefit of any food in our stomachs we were getting a bit buzzed—and hungry. Since I’d been looking forward to Cuban food since booking this cruise, we proceeded up to the Flamingo Grill on deck 16 for a delicious lunch.

 

Flamingo Grill is just outstanding. I think we sampled everything on the menu and loved it all. That first afternoon it was pulled pork and croquetas. I was blown away by how hot, fresh, and homemade the food tasted, especially as it was served buffet style. We ended up eating lunch there every day. I’m honestly not sure I’ll ever be able to cruise on another ship again, that’s how much I loved this food.

 

We were on this cruise as well. Flamingo Grill was my favorite lunch spot!! How I miss those plantains...and the pork...rice & beans...now I'm salivating:eek:

[PaulInPGH]

We were on this cruise as well. Flamingo Grill was my favorite lunch spot!! How I miss those plantains...and the pork...rice & beans...now I'm salivating:eek:

 

I know. The steak was also fantastic. I majorly regret only trying it on day 5, the last day they served it.

[TSUmom]

Enjoying your review and looking forward to more!!

[PaulInPGH]

Day 2: My Poorly-Planned Pub Crawl and a Sweet Victory

 

One of my favorite things about vacation—be it on land or sea—is sleeping in. Our inside cabin provided just the right environment for sleeping late, though we did have one issue that first night that I should point out.

 

I like it to be as cold as possible when I sleep, especially after a day in the hot Miami sun. The thermostats in the Getaway cabins are pretty simple to use, except for a tricky little button labeled with a snowflake. The seasoned NCL cruiser probably knows that this button is for a quick cool, where the AC turns to max for fifteen minutes, but then cycles back to the default temp setting. My wife and I, being new to NCL, merely thought the snowflake button was to be used to make the cabin cold. Imagine our surprise when we went to sleep, only to continuously wake up and find the cabin quite warm. We would hit the snowflake button and things would cool down again, but the cycle continued throughout the night.

 

I called guest services the next morning and got clarification; just use the temp up and down buttons, skip the snowflake. Knowing that helped us keep our cabin nice and chilly for the rest of the trip.

[PaulInPGH]

Anyway, once we finally got up at about 9:30, we ended up heading to the Garden Café for a late-ish breakfast. The buffet is an area where I think RCI is considerably better than NCL, for layout and ease of use more than the quality of the food.

 

That first morning, in particular, the buffet was absolutely packed and we were forced to circle for quite some time before landing a table. I thought the way the buffet stations were laid out—in a line, cafeteria style—made it very difficult to traverse. There was a considerable amount of traffic from people going up and down the line trying to find different items. RCI’s Windjammer is much more open, with different stations spread throughout the room, which allows for much better flow and access. The Garden Café felt very small and much more difficult to navigate by comparison.

 

All that being said, the quality of the breakfast, once we were able to get it, was great. I would just recommend either going very early, or very late.

[PaulInPGH]

After breakfast, we set off to enjoy one of our favorite pastimes on a cruise: sipping a drink while reading a book. We grabbed a couple of chairs at the Mojito Bar and relaxed and read for a couple hours.

 

We grabbed a quick bite at the Flamingo grill around 1:00, where I discovered the most excellent roast chicken I’d somehow missed the day before. That essential stop out of the way, we went back to the Mojito Bar, where we were to meet up with some fellow CC folks for a pub crawl at 2:00.

[PaulInPGH]

In an effort to meet some new cruise friends and to have a good time, I posted on our roll call and proposed the idea of a pub crawl for our first sea day. It seemed to generate a lot of interest, so I arbitrarily chose the Mojito Bar as a place to meet and set it for 2:00 on Sunday afternoon.

 

What I didn’t know is that the Mojito Bar plays host to a ton of events on sea days, from mojito tastings, to trivia, to piano music in the evenings. What’s more, the bar is pretty small, so the number of people these events attract far exceeds the capacity of the bar and seating area.

 

Unfortunately, at 2:00 on Sunday, the bar was absolutely packed, with one event wrapping up and a new one set to begin. This meant finding our pub crawl friends was basically impossible. I’d even posted my picture to our roll call, so people coming to the crawl would recognize me, but this wasn’t enough. If you end up planning something like this for your cruise, I’d suggest picking a more out of the way spot to meet, or else have everyone wear something outlandish in order to make recognition easier.

 

So to anyone who tried to attend that pub crawl, my apologies. I hope you managed to use that time for another fun activity.

[drneal]

So where would you start the pub crawl on the next cruise? And where you'd you go ?

[sue402001]

Enjoying your review, can't wait to read more!

[PaulInPGH]

So where would you start the pub crawl on the next cruise? And where you'd you go ?

 

If you do it in the evening (post 5:30), I'd meet at Prime Meridian (between Moderno and Cagney's). That bar was always quiet. During the day, I might try the Sunset Bar, or maybe Mix down on deck 6 between the two dining rooms.

 

And I would hit as many bars as you can, but for me the only real don't miss was the Mojito Bar. They've got the most unique drinks, but Sunset also had some good ones. I also like the outside bars at the pool deck and at Spice, just because I am a sucker for frozen drinks.

 

Cheers.

[PaulInPGH]

Enjoying your review, can't wait to read more!

 

Thank you! The new job is sapping a lot of my energy, but I hope to write a good chunk this weekend.

 

Cheers.

[Ladypeartree]

Following your review!

[Jaco5NC]

Enjoying your review. We were on the same sailing and had an outstanding time! I'm sorry to hear about the pub crawl, I was wondering how it went (or in this case, didn't). We had our kids with us so we didn't plan to attend. We also LOVED the Flamingo Grill and ate lunch there often. Loved the bar staff in that area too.

[PaulInPGH]

Following the letdown of the pub crawl, we decided to head back to our cabin for a short rest. As we get older (early 30s), we find that a short rest helps us stay awake in order to party until the wee hours of the morning—or at least until 11:00 or so.

 

After a nice rest, we headed back down to the Mojito Bar to play name that tune. This version was a little more challenging. Instead of playing clips of songs, the songs were played on the piano. Luckily, they were still pretty easy, and my wife and I ended up winning with a score of 18 out of 20! We won a free NCL coffee mug and had a lot of fun in the process.

 

After name that tune, we set off in search of dinner. We decided to brave the Garden Café again, hoping the crowds would be better than they were earlier in the day. While this was definitely the case, the dinner food wasn’t as good as the breakfast offerings.

[PaulInPGH]

Our lackluster dinner behind us, we took a trip down to deck 6 to see what was happening in the atrium. There always seemed to be something going on—from music to game shows. We found what would become one of our favorite places to sit, over near the Atrium Café. Not only did they have delicious espresso, but they had comfortable chairs slightly set off from the main seating area. It was a great place to comfortably sit and enjoy a drink while not being right in the middle of the action.

 

We were hoping to enjoy the Newlywed Show that evening, which was to take place at 8:45. Unfortunately, we only saw the first couple questions, because it took nearly 45 minutes just to decide on the participating couples. By the time the game finally got underway, we needed to head up to the theater for our 10:00 reservation for Burn the Floor.

[PaulInPGH]

As many have written here, Burn the Floor is excellent. The music, singing, and dancing were all fantastic. I thought the entertainment on this ship was far superior to anything I saw on my two cruises on RCI and Burn the Floor was the best of the best. The only thing I think could take the show up an additional notch would be if more of the music was played by live musicians. They had two live percussionists, and they were amazing, but a little more live music wouldn’t hurt. That being said, I still would not miss this stand-out performance.

 

Since we had an earlier dinner, our bellies led us to O’Sheehan’s for a pre-bed bite. We both ordered burgers and we were very pleasantly surprised by just how good they were. The bacon was thick-cut and flavorful and the burger was nice and juicy. We were definitely pleased and the burgers really hit the spot.

 

Even with our midday rest, we decided to head to bed around midnight. We didn’t want to burn out too soon, as we still had a long fun week ahead of us.

 

Up next, day 3: A slight mishap forces a change of plans and we finally brave the hot Caribbean sun.

[SUNNYGIRL45]

I'm really enjoying your review! We are in that Disney getting outpriced, underwhelmed by RCI, what else is out there crowd. I'm really excited to hear how much you liked the Getaway! I am getting convinced this could be our new fav.

[PaulInPGH]

I'm really enjoying your review! We are in that Disney getting outpriced, underwhelmed by RCI, what else is out there crowd. I'm really excited to hear how much you liked the Getaway! I am getting convinced this could be our new fav.

 

Thanks. I'm trying to write some more of the review this weekend, but it's been slow-going. My new job is essentially writing and proofreading/editing, so it's hard to work up the energy to write and edit when I get home.

 

All that aside, I'm sure you'd enjoy the Getaway. We didn't dislike RCI--quite the contrary--but we thought the Getaway was better than the two RCI cruises we'd taken. I've never done Disney, so have no point of comparison, but I'm sure Getaway would compare favorably.

 

Cheers.

[lilcruzr]

I just binge read your review so far. I am loving it. We are on the November 22 sailing over Thanksgiving. Thank you for being so detailed. I can't wait for more!